Tuesday, November 08, 2005
An Informal Guide to Chick-Lit
3:26 a.m. / 03:26
In case you haven't noticed, a lot of books I read, at least right now, are of the unofficial genre of chick-lit. I believe, though, that I only read quality chick-lit. Meg Cabot, Jennifer Crusie, Kavita Daswani, Janet Evanovich, Helen Fielding, Kristin Gore and Anna Maxted have all written novels that could be classified as chick-lit that have entertained me without leaving me wondering if I'd lost some brain cells somewhere between the front and back covers.
I'm not interested in everything by Meg Cabot. So far, I've only read her three loosely-tied "boy" books, which have been mentioned in previous posts.
In the case of Jennifer Crusie, I really only recommend her four most-recent novels-- Welcome to Temptation, Fast Women, Faking It and Bet Me.
With Janet Evanovich, I pretty much stick to her Stephanie Plum series (One for the Money, and so on...).
I do truly recommend Anna Maxted, but I admit I have so far had difficulty getting into her books at first. The main characters in the two I've read so far were girls I had difficulty identifying with, at least initially. One way or another, though, I found myself quite satisfied at the end of each of them.
Most recently, after reading In Her Shoes, I have added Jennifer Weiner to my good chick-lit list. I am looking forward to reading her other novels. I plan to read her first novel, Good In Bed next, because the main character (and her dog) from it made an appearance in In Her Shoes, so now I want to know more about her.
You might also check out Maeve Binchy and Rosamund Pilcher. Their names do not immeadiatly come to mind as chick-lit authors, but they write good books, and I suspect the majority of their readers are girls and women, although, who knows, I might be wrong. Also, they've both been writing since well before chick-lit was such a commen term, or at least before it was commen to me. In fact, I think Ms. Pilcher may have retired.
Friends of mine have recommended Jane Green and Nora Roberts, but I haven't gotten around to reading books by either of them yet, so I have no personnal opinion of them.
In case you haven't noticed, a lot of books I read, at least right now, are of the unofficial genre of chick-lit. I believe, though, that I only read quality chick-lit. Meg Cabot, Jennifer Crusie, Kavita Daswani, Janet Evanovich, Helen Fielding, Kristin Gore and Anna Maxted have all written novels that could be classified as chick-lit that have entertained me without leaving me wondering if I'd lost some brain cells somewhere between the front and back covers.
I'm not interested in everything by Meg Cabot. So far, I've only read her three loosely-tied "boy" books, which have been mentioned in previous posts.
In the case of Jennifer Crusie, I really only recommend her four most-recent novels-- Welcome to Temptation, Fast Women, Faking It and Bet Me.
With Janet Evanovich, I pretty much stick to her Stephanie Plum series (One for the Money, and so on...).
I do truly recommend Anna Maxted, but I admit I have so far had difficulty getting into her books at first. The main characters in the two I've read so far were girls I had difficulty identifying with, at least initially. One way or another, though, I found myself quite satisfied at the end of each of them.
Most recently, after reading In Her Shoes, I have added Jennifer Weiner to my good chick-lit list. I am looking forward to reading her other novels. I plan to read her first novel, Good In Bed next, because the main character (and her dog) from it made an appearance in In Her Shoes, so now I want to know more about her.
You might also check out Maeve Binchy and Rosamund Pilcher. Their names do not immeadiatly come to mind as chick-lit authors, but they write good books, and I suspect the majority of their readers are girls and women, although, who knows, I might be wrong. Also, they've both been writing since well before chick-lit was such a commen term, or at least before it was commen to me. In fact, I think Ms. Pilcher may have retired.
Friends of mine have recommended Jane Green and Nora Roberts, but I haven't gotten around to reading books by either of them yet, so I have no personnal opinion of them.
Labels: books
